A moderate critic of CAPITALISM, Mill nevertheless
rejected centralized state SOCIALISM or COMMUNISM
(MARXISM) but hoped for an economy of worker-owned
enterprises, run democratically and operating in a free
market. He favored gradual socialism through
increased taxes on the wealthy, inheritances, and land.
J. S. Mill moderated the utilitarian philosophy of
Jeremy BENTHAMby adding a qualitative dimension to
human happiness. As social, moral, and intellectual
beings, humans cannot be made happy with simply
more and more quantities of goods; they must advance
in quality. From this came his famous phrase: “It is
better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satis-
fied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satis-
fied.”
John Stuart Mill brings liberalism up to the 19th
and 20th centuries and greatly influences British and
American notions of freedom of speech, press, and
conscience; academic freedom; social welfare and
progress; feminism; social science; and religious skep-
ticism.
Further Reading
Mill, J. S. “Autobiography.” In The Collected Works of John Stuart
Mill,vol. I, J. Robson, ed. 1873.
Packe, M. St. J. The Life of John Stuart Mill.New York: Macmil-
lan, 1954.
Ryan, A. J. S. Mill.London: Routledge, 1974.
Milton, John (1608–1674) English political
writer, Puritan, and religious poet
Most famous for his classic Christian epic poetry
(Paradise Lost; Paradise Regained; Samson Agonistes),
Milton is significant as a PURITAN REPUBLICANthinker
during the period of the English Civil Wars
(1640–60), CROMWELL’s commonwealth, and the
CHURCH-AND-STATEcontroversies of that time. His polit-
ical pamphlet Areopagitica is considered the classic
MODERNdefense of FREEDOMof the press. This greatly
influenced later English and American conceptions of
political and religious liberty.
Most of Milton’s political writing concerned the
legitimacy of the anti-MONARCHY, parliamentary system
of England under Oliver Cromwell. As secretary of for-
eign tongues to the council of state, he wrote several
treatises justifying the Puritan republic to other Euro-
pean states. His Tenure of Kings and Magistrates
defended the trial and execution of King Charles I.
This RADICALthesis that monarchs are accountable to
the people and can be removed for treason, influenced
later SOCIAL-CONTRACTthinkers such as John LOCKEand
Thomas JEFFERSON. In religion, Milton was a firm
Protestant, opposing a church institution (CATHOLIC,
Episcopal, or PRESBYTERIAN) that interfered with the
individual believer’s right to LIBERTYof conscience. His
belief that a true CHRISTIANcommonwealth would pro-
tect individual freedom to religious belief put him in
the English Independent, Congregational or BAPTIST
camp. A virtuous republic is ruled by people who
are free to investigate and interpret the Bible for them-
selves and to live pious, peaceable Christian lives.
The ideal form of this republican government varied,
for Milton, from rule by the common “saints” to a
benevolent oligarchy. His hopes for this Christian com-
monwealth were lost with the Restoration of the
English monarchy in 1660. He thereupon retired to
private life in the country, where he wrote his most
famous religious poems. His final political treatise was
The Readie and Easie Way to Establish a Free Common-
wealth(1660).
Among Milton’s most controversial writings were
his essays favoring divorce on the grounds of incom-
patibility of mind and temperament. This un-Biblical
argument for divorce may have grown from Milton’s
own very unhappy first marriage. This contributed to
the Catholic European denunciation of Milton,
Cromwell, and their republican ideas.Further Readings
Davies, S. Images of Kingship in ‘Paradise Lost’: Milton’s Politics
and Christian Liberty. Columbia: University of Missouri
Press, 1983.
Hill, C. Milton and the English Revolution.New York: Viking
Press, 1977.mixed constitution
Originally, in ARISTOTLE, a government that combines
the three main forms of state: MONARCHYor kingship
(the rule of one); ARISTOCRACY(the rule of a few); and
polity (the rule of the many). Aristotle and later
thinkers (CICERO, James HARRINGTON, John LOCKE,
James MADISON, Baron MONTESQUIEU) viewed this
“mixed” constitution as the most stable (if not most
excellent, wise, or efficient) of governments. The
assumption is that it will represent all sectors of a soci-
ety (the few rich and noble with the majority poor and
ignorant), preventing social unrest and REVOLUTION.
The British CONSTITUTIONof king, House of Lords, andmixed constitution 209